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AL West title race

RANGERS (84-71, 1st)

Sunday: lost to Astros 4-2

Today: 7:05 vs. Tigers

ASTROS (82-74, 21/2 GB)

Sunday: def. Rangers 4-2

Today: 9:10 at Mariners

ANGELS (81-74, 3 GB)

Sunday: def. Mariners 3-2

Today: 9:05 vs. Athletics

"You guys like entertaining baseball?" asked a grinning A.J. Hinch after the team that just won't go away took two of three games from the humbled Rangers to guarantee its first winning season since 2008.

We really like these 2015 Astros. Which is why 9-15 in September somehow feels good enough with six games to go in the journey of 162. And why a terrific 4-2 victory against Texas before the roar of 36,084 at Minute Maid Park was the best place to be in Houston on an NFL Sunday.

Series win huge

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Brian T. Smith

Who cares about the Texans right now? The Astros are still alive, they took a possible season-altering series from the Rangers, and the playoffs remain in sight.

"It's a blast," Hinch said. "I actually smiled on the bench at the end of the game, which I never smile. So I'm having a great time. Bring this stress to me every year."

The Astros' first-year leader stole back a couple votes from Texas' Jeff Banister for AL Manager of the Year during the weekend. Hinch's club also rediscovered its swagger with two huge wins, pulling within 21/2 games of the division lead and cutting its wild-card magic number to seven.

This team still has enough holes to drive you mad; 29-46 away from home is bad enough to damn the Astros and make a good story end too soon. But this team also answered last week's 33-13 four-game beatdown in Arlington with "Pow!" "Zap!" and "Boom!"

If the Astros are strong enough in late September to outpower the second-best team in baseball since the All-Star break, they are sharp enough to stick around in early October. With this season already worth more than we ever expected - winning record, playoff race, Carlos Correa under lights, game No. 156 truly meaning something - what's to say the Astros can't get a little crazy in New York and Toronto (or Kansas City) if they keep outlasting everyone else's limited expectations?

"We've been having fun all year. … We've had our ups and downs. But at the end, I think we'll be OK," said first baseman Chris Carter, who again proved his September roster worth with a monster 385-foot blast that ricocheted off an arch above the Crawford Boxes.

Carter has four long balls in 24 at-bats this month. Little-seen Carlos Gomez stole second as a pinch runner in the eighth, sprinted to third on a groundout, then brushed the edge of home with outstretched fingers after a passed ball bounced off the backstop. Backup center fielder Jake Marisnick lined a two-out, two-run double in the second, giving the Astros a lead that never vanished.

In hunt for hardware

Sometimes it's the little things and random names for this team when everything works. Other times, it comes down to four people who've created the best baseball year in Houston in a decade.

Only the Blue Jays'David Price stands between Astros lefty Dallas Keuchel and the 2015 AL Cy Young award. Jeff Luhnow should be up for Executive of the Year. Then there's Correa battling Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor for the league's Rookie of the Year honor and Hinch versus Bannister on the bench.

Sunday in Houston belonged solely to Keuchel. The Man Who Owned Minute Maid Park in 2015 was cruel, filthy and nasty in the best possible way during the biggest game of his career. There were seven innings of two-hit, one-run, 10-strikeout ball in another contest the Astros had to have. It was 15-0 and a 1.46 ERA at MMP this season, a year that goes down as one of the greatest personal homestands in MLB history.

Two years ago, Keuchel was a forgotten member on a lost team that sold its baseball soul for a shot at the future: 15 consecutive defeats to end 2013 and 111 total losses, all in the name of rebuilding. On Sunday, he again rang up smooth K's and scoreless frames in the park he will always have a place in.

"It'd be nice to have some hardware," he said. "But I'd rather have a big fat ring."

Jose Altuve, Marwin Gonzalez, Jason Castro and Carter were among the lost Astros in 2013. George Springer and Correa were still waiting on the farm.

Now they're all found. Everyday heroes in a year that's been a blast. Six games and a potential day of wildness away from perhaps stamping their passports one more time.